


Keep Breathing

by Settiai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, One Shot, Pre-Stream (Critical Role)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 07:26:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16572224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: The pain didn't register at first.





	Keep Breathing

An arrow grazed Percy's arm, and he hissed slightly at the impact. Still, he managed to shove the stinging in his arm to the back of his mind as he took his shot.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Percy's attention was focused on the rogue who had been sneaking up behind Keyleth. He'd seen the archer aiming at him out of the corner of his eye, but there hadn't been anything he could do about her just then. Not with Keyleth unaware of the danger coming towards her. He had his priorities, after all, and almost everyone else in Vox Machina came before him.

They'd rescued him and offered him a place in their group. The least he could do was earn his keep and try to pay them back.

The rogue dropped limply to the ground a few feet away from Keyleth, but the man's hands were still moving, reaching for something on his belt that Percy couldn't see from his higher vantage point. And if Vax had taught him anything over the last six months or so, it was that as long as a rogue could move they were potentially deadly.

Something grazed his arm again, deeper this time. Percy took in deep breath, letting it out as slowly as he could, before doing his best to ignore the sting.

He pulled the trigger again, his gaze focused on the rogue as the man's hand pulled away from his waist with a nasty-looking dagger held in it. The man jerked back as the bullet impacted his chest. Then, finally, he went still.

The corner of Percy's mouth turned upwards into a smirk before he started to spin around, bringing his pepperbox up again to aim at the archer who was using him for target practice. The woman was in a nearby tree, almost level with him since he was at the top of one of the rough guard towers set up around the bandits' camp. He grunted a bit as something hit him in the chest, hard, but he ignored it as he lined up his shot and fired.

The archer fell backwards without a sound, dropping to the ground below. A moment later, the air filled with the crunching sound of bones breaking. Percy closed his eyes, sending up a silent thanks to anyone who might be listening that his weapon seemed to be cooperating with him for once.

The pain didn't register at first.

Percy took a few steadying breaths, frowning slightly as he couldn't seem to breathe in as deeply as he would have liked. He usually didn't have trouble catching his breath, not recently at least. Opening his eyes again, he glanced down.

There was an arrow shaft sticking out of his chest, worryingly close to his heart.

He stared at it blankly for a moment, his mind feeling strangely disconnected from his body. Then the pain hit. His pepperbox slipped from his suddenly lax grip as he went sprawling backwards against the roughly hewn wooden floor of the tower.

"Fuck," he managed to say, the words barely audible even to his own ears. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Percy reached up to touch the arrow's shaft, not particularly surprised to find his fingers sticky with blood within a moment. He had enough sense not to try to pull it out, but he wasn't certain what he _should_ do. It wasn't as if he had any healing potions on him. Most of the money he earned on their odd jobs either went towards improving his pepperbox or was handed over to Vex to put towards the party as a whole. He didn't spend it on selfish things like potions.

Gods, it _hurt_.

Cassandra's face flashed in his mind, the color draining from it moments before she stumbled and fell, arrows sticking out of her body like needles in a pincushion. Percy flinched and tried his best to shove that memory back into the darkness as he tried unsuccessfully to catch his breath. Not thinking about it was easier than it might have been otherwise, considering his mind was rather concerned by the fact that his vision was starting to go black at the edges.

For what might have been the first time, Percy regretted that Tiberius hadn't had a chance to make enough earrings for all of them yet. Giving in and letting one of the twins pierce his ear definitely seemed like a much more palatable option when the other choice was bleeding to death.

Damn it.

Percy tried to focus on just breathing. Every single breath sent sharp, stabbing pains through his chest. He needed to get up. The others were depending on him to watch their backs, to keep an eye on them from above. He needed to—

He tried to push himself back up into a sitting position, and the entire world went grey for a long moment. By the time he'd come back to awareness, the sound of fighting down below had ended. Percy could hear a few voices drifting up from the ground, all of them familiar, and he felt a moment of relief even though he couldn't tell what they were saying. Talking was good. Talking meant that he hadn't completely failed anyone else.

"Hey Percival, are you alive up there?"

Percy's eyes shot open at the sound of Vax's voice – when exactly had he closed them? – and he instinctively turned his head towards the ladder propped up against the other end of the tower. His vision was nothing but a splash of overlapping colors, and he instinctively reached up to adjust his glasses even though he could tell they were where they were supposed to be.

Or, at least, that's what Percy attempted to do. He immediately regretted that decision as it sent a wave of throbbing pain through his entire chest, and he quickly let his hand drop back down to the side. That... hadn't been the wisest move. Not by a long shot.

A blur of dark colors that Percy thought might have been an arm suddenly appeared at the edge of the platform, just above where the ladder was leaning. Like someone was climbing up it.

"Seriously Percy, did you fall asleep?" There was some annoyance in Vax's voice, but it was tinged with what sounded suspiciously like concern as well. "I thought you were supposed to be watching our backs in case—"

His words cut off abruptly.

Percy tried to focus on Vax's form as it appeared over the edge of the tower, but his vision was blurring in and out of focus too much for him to see even remotely clearly. All he saw was a blob of color, one that seemed to move as fast as lightning. It felt like all he'd done was blink before the vaguely Vax-shaped figure had made its way beside him and was putting a hand up to its ear.

"Pike! Get up here now! Percy's down."

Percy was vaguely aware of hands moving over his body, urgent yet gentle at the same time as they clearly checked for wounds other than the obvious one. He let his eyes drift closed again.

Someone patted his cheek. Then they patted him a little harder. A moment later, it turned into an actual slap.

His eyes shot open again as he jerked in surprise, and Percy couldn't quite hold back a gasp as the movement sent another wave of pain through his entire body. "That hurt," he said rather indignantly.

Or, at least, he tried to say it. Percy rather suspected that the words weren't understandable considering they came across as more of a pained whine than anything else.

"Stay with me, you bastard," Vax said, his hands moving worriedly over Percy's chest as if he wasn't quite certain where to put them. "Don't you dare die on me."

_Stay with me, Cass. Don't do this. Don't you dare do this._

Vax leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Percy's, his hand suddenly reaching down to clasp one of Percy's. "You're going to be fine," he said, and for a rogue he wasn't nearly as good of a liar as he thought that he was. "Do you hear me? You're going to be fine."

Percy closed his eyes.

*

The first thought that Percy had as he drifted back to consciousness was that he felt as if he'd fallen off of a cliff. His chest was aching, and he felt like... like...

_Stay with me, you bastard._

... like he'd been shot in the chest with an arrow.

Percy's eyes shot open, and he immediately tried to sit up. He made it a few inches off the ground before his body let him know just how utterly stupid an idea that had been, and with a pained groan he let himself fall backwards.

He was vaguely aware of a pressure disappearing from one of his hands, like someone had been holding onto it until his impromptu bout of idiocy.

"Percy?"

He turned towards the sound of Vax's voice. The half-elf was sitting beside him, his face a bit paler than usual and a relieved look on his face. His features were slightly blurred, but Percy recognized it as the familiar lack-of-glasses blur rather than the possibly-bleeding-out blur from before. He pointedly tried not to think about the fact that he'd experienced both of them enough times to tell the difference.

Percy swallowed, trying to ignore how rough and dry his throat felt. "How long was I unconscious?"

Vax frowned. "Too long."

Percy shot him an unimpressed look that he suspected was marred a bit by his no doubt unfocused eyes. It seemed to do the job, though, as Vax sighed.

"About two hours," Vax said. "Pike healed up the worst of your injuries, but she was too tapped to take care of all of them. Keyleth helped a bit, but Scanlan and Vex couldn't do much since, well..."

"Since it was a hard fight," Percy said, filling in where Vax had left off, "and they didn't have much left either."

Vax nodded. Then he looked away, not quite meeting Percy's gaze. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I took an arrow to the chest," Percy said dryly.

Vax's gaze flickered in his direction before darting back away. "Smartass," he said fondly, a hint of something that Percy couldn't quite interpret in his voice. Then he paused for a moment before adding: "Keyleth is pretty pissed at you right now."

Percy frowned. "It's not exactly my fault that I was shot," he protested lightly.

He shifted a bit, tentatively pushing himself upwards into a sitting position. His chest ached, but it didn't protest quite as much when he moved slowly. Percy didn't particularly want to sit up for a long time, but if he was going to have a conversation with someone, then he'd rather be face-to-face with them if possible.

"That weapon of yours makes it pretty easy to figure out who you took down," Vax said, still not meeting Percy's gaze, "and Pike's pretty good at telling how long someone's been dead. Including rogues."

Percy flinched, just slightly. "Ah."

Vax's gaze darted back towards him. "Yeah," he agreed. "Don't get me wrong, we're all glad to have you watching our backs. Just... don't forget to watch your own, okay?"

Percy opened his mouth. Then he closed it, not quite certain what to say. He went for a half-hearted shrug instead, doing his best to ignore the knowing look that Vax was shooting him.

"I'm reconsidering letting you or Vex pierce my ear," he said instead, deciding that talking about something else was perhaps the better part of valor in this case.

Vax snorted. "It's about time," he shot back. "And don't think I didn't notice you desperately changing the subject."

Percy gave him another shrug. He wasn't going to deny it, but he wasn't particularly interested in admitting to it either.

The two of them sat there in silence for a long before Vax let out a sigh. "I'm going to go let Pike know you're awake," he said. "She'll want to check you over even if she's out of juice at the moment."

Percy nodded. Or, at least, he started to nod. The movement aborted about halfway through as Vax leaned in and pressed a quick kiss against his lips that somehow managed to be both completely chaste and _really not_ at the exact same time.

"Don't pull a stunt like that again," Vax said as he pulled away a moment or two later. "You scared the hells out of me." He paused before adding more quietly: "Out of all of us."

Percy stared at him. He could feel his face flushing somewhat, but for the first time in a long time he couldn't quite manage to find his words.

Vax shot him a quicksilver grin before pushing himself to his feet and disappearing off into the growing shadows around them.

Without a word, Percy reached up to touch his lips. They felt almost as if they were burning where Vax had kissed him, even though he knew it was just his imagination.

Oh. _Oh._ He... hadn't expected that.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me over on Tumblr. (http://settiai.tumblr.com/)


End file.
